


First Contact

by I_Am_Javert



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-28
Updated: 2013-05-28
Packaged: 2017-12-13 05:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/820792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Am_Javert/pseuds/I_Am_Javert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Tasha Yar's death, Data attempts to recreate her image in order to find closure at her loss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Contact

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at a fic, so please excuse it's lack of neatness.

Data entered Engineering to find Geordi frantically pressing buttons like a madman in a daze. It fascinated the lieutenant to see a man with no sight moving with expert ease: even with the visor, Data secretly viewed Geordi as an impaired model, regardless of his respect for him as an officer. 

As the doors closed behind him, Geordi looked up and smiled, displaying a visionary spectacle of whitened teeth.  
"Data! I've been waiting for you to come down and see the new programming," he enthused with an exuberance Data almost envied. His abilities could only imitate: in his quest for humanisation he found most comfort in analysing Geordi.  
He walked over to a separate panel and waited for Data to move...only he didn't. 

His brilliant, amber eyes were fixated on the calculations, the mathematics of programming and the doubt began to sweep over him. Geordi sensed this, and wandered over to lay a hand on his shoulder.

"Data. I am your friend and I have complete faith in this simulation. It will be a digital imprint in the third dimension, it might even feel too real!"

"It is not the quality I am concerned for, Geordi." Data's mouth twitched uneasily. "As an android I am incapable of any human emotion and yet, despite my formatted circuitry, I am feeling what you would rationalise as, fear."

"That's normal. Well, maybe not for you!" he joked. "Computer, run programme D-880: private quarters in section CC9, axa file Lieutenant Yar."

The doors swung open to reveal a half-lit room that was completely identical to Data's on the third deck. He did not thank Geordi, because he found himself moving without thought or comprehension. 

The doors silently shut behind him, and Data waited until a light appeared, formulating the shape of a being. Her face, her familiar smile, appeared in the darkness, and Data felt himself freeze. "This is not a physical malfunction," he concluded to himself. "So why then are my movements less fluid?"  
His eyebrow raised inquisitively as from behind what appeared to be a sealant, a figure moved and stepped into the room's only source of lighting.

"Hello Data." 

"Lieutenant Yar," he replied curtly. 

Her eyes scanned the room, her face expressionless yet showing an eagerness which he could not understand.  
Data did not want to envision Yar this way, to see her as a speculation, a holographic, soulless image. But, as promised to Geordi and to himself, he felt such a need to see her again after her untimely death.

"You are uncomfortable?" 

"I do not find solace, I am an android specifically engineered to--"

"You are not an android here. Not in this place, not with me, Data." Yar moved forward so that their chests were but an inch apart. 

"Remarkable." he murmured softly. "Your breathing patterns, your humanistic movements, your appearance...it is all so...lifelike."

He reached out and cupped the right side of her face. He had always envisioned a time, when she was alive, when he could do that without the generic and hostile recoil from his cold, un-human touch. He found now that, even if he had attempted such an act, that perhaps she would be an exception. Perhaps she would not have reacted in a similar way. 

"It's funny," she chuckled. "Although I am merely a simulation, I feel real. And I still can't tell what you're thinking."

Data opened his mouth, prepared for an exquisitely long list of logs recorded in his memory bank. But he felt different here, he did not feel the obligation like he did with Jean-Luc. 

"There are...expressions of emotions I could not express when your predecessor of function was alive, Tasha. I was to conduct myself. I am purely here for my own closure."

Yar touched his face in unison to him, and stroked lightly. The sensors beneath Data's skin vibrated silently, sending a mild impulse to his complex mind.

"Closure? You are becoming more human than I could have ever imagined." 

"Yes," he replied quietly. "I hope for a period of time in my chronological future in which I can become, essentially, more human."  
"I like you just the way you are."

"Does the lieutenant mean to say 'liked'?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Your rationalism suppresses your ability to feel compassion!"

"I am unable to feel anything."

"I don't believe that!" She cried. A tear fell from her face and dispersed as it hit the air. Her eyes appeared bloodshot and tired. The realistic aspect of programming had decidedly unnerved Data.

He swept a finger over her eyes, relinquishing the skin of any more tears. "Please. Do not cry." 

"Why? Because you cannot?"

"No. Because, contrary to my previous statement, I can feel."

She leant closer. "What do you feel when you are witness to my sadness?"

"Hurt."

Her lip trembled. "But you only see me as an illusion, a figment fabricated from memory."

"But I am able and willing to delve into a fantasy I cannot live." 

Data held her face firmly as he planted a kiss on her lips. Their embrace was cold and solid, but heated with a passion Data had never experienced before.  
Due to the technological updates in sense perception, he was able to fathom and enjoy the taste, the sensation of the kiss, savouring the intimacy and longing.  
She gripped his arms tightly, her eyes scrunched with an earnest never to open. Eventually, they did. 

Data's initial reaction was predictable: his eyebrows raised with surprise and acknowledgment. His mouth opened and closed, unable to formulate the words. Yar smiled broadly and wiped her cheeks. Her eyes held his for an extensive period of time, until their gaze broke and she stared at the clock.

"Your time in this simulation has ended, Data. Programme terminated," she said, despondency dampening her voice. And with that, the reception of the hologram faltered and vanished, leaving Data alone with incomprehensible thoughts.


End file.
